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Alison Lundergan Grimes and Sen. Mitch McConnell both set fundraising records in the year's second quarter, all but assuring that their closely watched Senate race will be the most expensive ever run in Kentucky.

Grimes reported Tuesday that she raised $4 million in the quarter ended June 30, crushing the previous mark of $2.9 million set by McConnell in the months after he defeated Democrat Bruce Lunsford in 2008.

McConnell, meanwhile, set a personal record in the second quarter, reporting that he had raised $3.1 million and bested the record for total money raised in a Kentucky campaign, a mark that he held, by pushing his total to $25 million. That is more than twice Grimes' total of $11.3 million in the campaign thus far.

Some have predicted that more than $100 million will be spent on the race by the time November's election rolls around.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said both candidates will have enough to get their messages out.

"Alison Grimes is one of the great Democratic hopes of 2014 across the country," he said. "If you had to pick one Republican most Democrats want to see lose, it would be Mitch McConnell," the Senate minority leader. "That gives you big donations, small donations."

Meanwhile, McConnell's cash-on-hand advantage has dwindled from $9.6 million a year ago, when Grimes entered the race, to just 3.6 million — as polls continue to show a tight race.

Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor with the non-partisan Cook Political Report in Washington, said that Grimes' numbers are strong.

"She had a great quarter. Republicans will be hard-pressed to argue otherwise," said Duffy, who noted that much of Grimes' support came from outside Kentucky.

"It also shows how nationalized this race has become," she said. "Very few Senate challengers can claim donations from all 50 states. There are incumbents who can't make that claim."

The total raised doesn't even count the millions upon millions of dollars that are being poured into the state through political action committees — most of them supporting McConnell's re-election.

Both campaigns said their fundraising in the quarter set them up to make a strong run in November.

Jonathan Hurst, Grimes' campaign manager, said her campaign has primarily spent its time and resources building a machine that it expects will get voters to the polls.

"We have invested in grassroots, data and analytics. That's going to help us in November," he said.

By raising more than $4 million, Grimes raised more in the quarter than any other U.S. Senate candidate in the U.S.

Hurst said the campaign's median contribution in the quarter was $25 and that Grimes got donations from all 120 Kentucky counties. In all, Hurst said, she received contributions from more that 84,000 people and had more than 100,000 contributions of less that $50 each.

"It really shows she has grass roots support," he said.

Meanwhile, the McConnell camp played up the fact that it still has a lead in cash on hand.

"Sen. McConnell has broken a Kentucky fundraising record and is well-positioned to take a substantial cash advantage and a lead in the polls into this November's election," said Allison Moore, his campaign spokeswoman. "The unprecedented support from throughout the Commonwealth and around the country for Sen. McConnell's strong leadership is increasing every quarter."

Of the four most recent public polls, according to Real Clear Politics, McConnell is ahead in two and Grimes is ahead in two — and all of the polls are within the margin of error.

Josh Holmes, an adviser to the McConnell campaign, belittled Grimes' fundraising, noting on Twitter that she spent $2.6 million "without a primary opponent" in the second quarter and that Republican Sharon Angle raised $28.2 million in an unsuccessful challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada in 2010.

Sabato said that in the end, McConnell and Grimes will "both have all they need to motivate their voters, air TV ads and all the rest of it."

The race, he said, "will come down to philosophy and party and conditions prevailing in November." At this point, those factors favor McConnell's re-election, he added.

"It's tough to sell a Democrat for federal office when the Democratic president is as unpopular as he is in Kentucky," he said.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or jgerth@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Gerth. Reporter James R. Carroll contributed to this story.